The
Unwitting Pop Music PioneerOne of pop music`s first famous Asian faces, singer Annabella Lwin
revisits her old band Bow Wow Wow for a string of U.S. summer concerts
BY MAXIMILLIAN MARK MEDINA

Quick: name five Asian female
singers who became internationally famous with modern Anglo pop music,
hold on, back in the `80s. There have been a few to enjoy some
degree of fame in the `90s and beyond like Norah Jones (of course),
Miho Hatori (Cibo Matto), Amerie, Coco Lee, or Miki Berenyi (Lush).
None, however, had the notoriety that followed Annabella Lwin of Bow
Wow Wow, the band best known for their Stangeloves cover, "I Want
Candy" (and their mohawks, among other things).

Born in Burma (a.k.a. Myanmar)
to a British mother and a Burmese father, Lwin settled with her mom
in London after her parents split up. Still looking great, and now sans
mohawk, the singer took some time out from working on new solo material
for a chat with ChopBlock. She speaks enthusiastically, coating her
words in a devastating British accent.

It is Lwin who starts the
interview. "Do you know anything about me?" she asks. After
confessing my semi-encyclopedic knowledge of early `80s Brit pop, especially
Adam And The Ants, she laughs. Straight away, Lwin insists on clarifying
the much-debated story about Bow Wow Wow and the original incarnation
of Adam Ant`s former band. According to her, legendary style guru (and
infamous Sex Pistols manager) Malcolm McLaren snatched away two of the
Ants (drummer Dave Barbarossa and the late guitarist Matthew Ashman),
recruited bassist Leigh Gorman, and assembled Bow Wow Wow, who needed
a singer.

Lwin was scouted by a friend
of McLaren, Dave Fishel, at the dry cleaning shop she worked at. "I
thought the guy was trying to pick me up, actually...because he had
been coming in for a couple weeks on and off. I thought he was just
in there to buy dope off the presser, a Jamaican guy called George,
he was a really lovely guy. He used to drink lots and lots of Newcastle
brown ale. [Fishel] heard me singing to a Stevie Wonder song."
She went to the audition with a friend, got the job, but the rest isn`t
history just yet. Lwin was actually fired from the band twice
during the first few months.

"[The band] told me
they were trying to test my commitment. In all honesty, I think it was
a lot of psychological games [on McLaren`s part]. I was too young and
too stupid to know what was happening. All I kept thinking was, `I really
love singing.`" After the second firing, "I told them `I don`t
want anything more to do with your band! You`re not nice people!`"
She gave in after the band payed a visit to her and her mom, desperate
for her talent for an imminent tour. Around that time, "Go Wild
In The Country," became their first top ten hit in England. Lwin
was suddenly a bona fide pop star, at the ripe old age of fifteen.

The band did their first
gig at a roller disco. "I had to stand on a box to be seen,"
Lwin recalls. "[Because of McLaren], people thought we were the
Sex Pistols, Mk II. People were [spitting at me]. It was absolutely
disgusting. I knew nothing about [McLaren] except for the fact that
he looked kind of weird because he had this orange hairdo. And a very
big nose. [But], people realized that we were a really good live band."
Even Boy George, pre-Culture Club, was briefly part of the group, but
just for one show--he got booed off the stage.

Another much-debated topic
is that of Lwin`s name. At one point, McLaren had given her the stage
name Beth Mann. "I didn`t like that name," she recalls. "I
said, `What`s wrong with my name, Annabella?` He [had] actually decided
to use my Burmese name, Myant Myant Aye, but unfortunately, no one could
really pronounce that."

Not surprisingly, at the
time, Lwin`s mom was not exactly impressed with what her daughter got
into, especially not with seeing her teenager pose nude on her band`s
first album cover. Lwin partly blames McLaren`s "cash from chaos"
work ethic for the pain her mom had to endure in the early days. "`Stay
complete,` `style, style, style,`" she remembers. "Malcolm
had always said to me, from day one, `You have to learn how to sink
or swim!` He`s like a little boy, very demanding." As for the typically
strict Asian father? "He`s very, very proud of me," she beams.
"I`ve had blessings from my father now, recently."

After four albums, the band
split up in 1983. Lwin worked on solo material, and spent time in England
and Myanmar, but never recaptured the fame she had with Bow Wow Wow.
Although Lwin was thrown into the world of "sex, drugs, and rock
`n` roll" as a teen, "because of my Buddhist roots,"
she explains, "I believe something`s always protected me."

Now based in Los Angeles,
she and Gorman are set for a few American shows this July, with No Doubt
drummer Adrian Young ("I think [Gorman] met him at a strip club,"
she jokes) and Common Sense guitarist Phil Gough. The reformed band
had recently played at L.A.-based radio station KROQ`s Inland Invasion
with fellow `80s icons Duran Duran and The Cure. "It`s a joy to
see all the new faces," she says. "It`s wonderful for me to
say `thank you` to the fans."

Lwin is also currently at
work on new solo material. "My new songs are a complete contrast
to Bow Wow Wow," she offers. "I`m praying that the right record
label realizes that what I have is something different to offer--in
every which way, honey! (Laughs) I`m certainly not going to
do something that`s been done before, because I am so bored with that.
Most of the songs are very close to my heart as a Buddhist." Expect
to be enlightened musically with the new material. "If people come
to see me at a [solo] show expecting me to jump up and down on stage
for an hour," she warns, "they will be disappointed."

When I point out that Lwin
was one of the first internationally famous Asian singers, she`s genuinely
shocked. "Really? (Pauses) I remember a singer...it was
in the `90s..." See? "`Ever So Lonely!` That was such a great
song (sings) `Ever so lo-lo-lo...`" I remind her it`s
Shiela Chandra (who isn`t nearly as famous), but by then she gets my
point. Lwin, the pioneer? Some people just don`t realize the mark they
leave on history. And that`s part of Lwin`s charm.